Re: 3 month trip out West
US 2 and US 20 are good options to head west from WI or IL. I've been on both Highways and found RV Campgrounds along the way. Don't look for big fancy RV Resorts though. Once off the beaten track or Resort areas, the pickins get slim, but that's half the fun.
Getting up to IL from FL is a little tricky to navigate on back roads, but can be done with a good Rand McNally Roadmap from Wal-Mart. That way you will know where all the Wal-Mart Supercenters are located. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: The old trusty portable GPS is an option I wouldn't be without now that I finally broke down and purchased one.
I haven't used Good Sam as I think the fun of RVing is just going in the direction you intend to travel and make up your route as you go. However, I'm sure using their routes would work really well. Especially the low clearance aspect. My GPS has delivered me to tricky places before. I just look ahead on my map to make sure the GPS is going to the same place I intend to go.
Yesterday I was traveling on US 98 around the Gulf of Mexico and all of a sudden my GPS starting telling me I was on the wrong road and I needed to turn around. It kept saying turn left or right at next unpaved road. Can you imagine turning off the paved road onto an unpaved road you were not familiar with while towing a RV? I kept going on the road I was on because I knew it was heading in the right direction (onboard compass and GPS direction arrow) Well, I think what happened was that the road I was on, was a new addition (shortcut) that wasn't programmed into the latest version of GPS software (2008) I'm using. Totally confused the GPS. It showed me out in the boonies with no road. Also, I never did see the dirt roads I was directed to turn onto. Moral of the story: know where you are going and don't rely on your GPS (Garmin) totally.
